Tesla’s Autopilot and AI boss Andrej Karpathy has announced that he is leaving the company. CEO Elon Musk is not likely to be happy about this: Karpathy’s departure comes at the worst possible time for the electric car manufacturer.
Tesla has lost one of its key experts in developing its technology systems. “It has been my great pleasure to help Tesla achieve its goals over the past five years. And parting with him was a difficult decision,” Tesla senior executive Andrei Karpathy wrote on Twitter Wednesday night. He was the chief of autopilot and artificial intelligence (AI). He continued, “In that time, Autopilot has evolved from lane keeping to city streets, and I look forward to seeing the exceptionally strong Autopilot team continue that momentum.”
Karpathy doesn’t have any concrete plans for the future yet, but would like to spend more time rekindling his long-standing passions in technical AI, open source and education.
The man, who played a key role in the development of AI and driver assistance technology at Tesla, did not give reasons for the departure. The move follows Tuesday’s closure of a Tesla office in San Mateo, California, where it was collecting data from Tesla vehicles and working to improve the company’s driver-assistance technology. According to the US agency California Employment Development, more than 200 employees worked there.
Karpathy’s departure may reflect challenges to Tesla’s advances in the field of the FSD computer for fully autonomous driving/robotaxi, estimated the analyst at the major Swiss bank Credit Suisse, Dan Levy.
Tesla Autopilot has encountered problems so far
In late 2016, Elon Musk promised to develop a self-driving car that could drive from Los Angeles to New York “without a single touch” by the end of 2017. Then, in 2019, the Tesla CEO raised a billion-dollar sum by promising investors that his company would put one million “robotaxi-enabled” cars on the road by the end of 2020. So far, however, Tesla has not been able to introduce an autonomous vehicle that can drive independently from coast to coast. Instead, Tesla Autopilot has driver-assistance features like traffic-sensitive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, and automatic navigation.
In addition, since June 2021, Tesla vehicles have been involved in almost 70 percent of all accidents involving an activated autopilot. However, officials say the information is incomplete, so no conclusions can be drawn about which automakers have the safest systems.
Just last month, NHTSA expanded its investigation into Tesla Autopilot after a series of rear-end collisions across the United States. Since the investigation began in August, the agency has found six other incidents in which Teslas with autopilot on crashed into parked emergency vehicles. Originally, there were eleven such accidents.
In addition, the NHTSA looks at over 100 autopilot accidents in which no emergency vehicles were involved. She also examines the extent to which the system exacerbates human error. However, Tesla points out to its customers that the autopilot is only an assistance system and that the driver must therefore keep his or her hands on the steering wheel at all times. You also have to be ready to take control of the vehicle at any time. Musk claims that autopilot makes driving safer and helps avoid accidents.
Elon Musk is aiming for full autopilot capability by the end of the year
Despite the fully autonomous driving function not yet achieved, Karpathy played a significant role in the development of AI and the Tesla Autopilot, as Elon Musk himself said in January. He thanked Karpathy for his work via Twitter. It was an honor to work with him. The Tesla CEO has set himself the goal of finally achieving full autopilot capability by the end of the year. This means that the departure of the autopilot and AI boss should come at the worst possible time.
Who will be Karpathy’s successor at Tesla is still known. However, Raj Rajkumar, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, told Reuters: “I imagine there will be an internal promotion to fill Karpathy’s position.” However, it should not be easy to find someone with their experience and knowledge.
Sources: , , with material from the dpa
Source: Stern
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